Shoe sewing machine



March 4, 1947. G. A..MINER I SHOE SEWING MACHINE .Ffiled Sept. 19, 1945 was Patented Mar. 4, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT oFHcE' SHOE SEWING MACHINE George A. Miner, Manchester, N. H., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J a corporation of New Jersey Application September 19, 1945, Serial No. 617,349 I The present invent onrelates to shoe sewing machines and is herein illustrated as embodied in a machine for simultaneously sewing together the edges of anupper, an insole, and a relatively wide strip of covering material, to enable covering a platform type sole on a shoe by wrapping the u ewed edge of the strip about the edge of the sole. i

In sewing a platform sole edge covering strip to a shoe, the usual practice is to guide the strip in such relation to the machine that the seam will pass through one edge of the strip while the loose portion of the strip is left free to be wrapped about the edge of the platform sole, sometimes referred to briefly as the platform. In a curved hook needle shoe sewing machine there is little if any available space for the addition to the machine of a bulky guide ordinarily required to direct the sole edge covering strip or wrapper to the sewing point. Also, platform sole edge covering strips or wrappers are relatively flexible and are not susceptible to easy and accurate control or direction of movement.

In guidin a sole edge covering strip or wrapper into sewing position, it is desirable to sew the strip as close to its edge. as is practicable, leaving free as great a width of the strip as possible for subsequent wrapping about the edge of the sole. With excessive flexibility in acoverin-g strip. accurate control or direction cannot be obtained merely by confining the strip throughout its entire width, the rigidity of the strip being insuflicient to maintain proper guiding action. Furthermore, a platform edge covering strip or wrapper frequently is cut with a non-uniform width to fit the edges of a platform sole or heel lift having varying degrees of thickness throughout the length of the shoe, thus increasing still further the difficulty. in controlling the strip.

A method and machine for controlling a platform edge covering strip of variable width while being guided into sewing position on a 'shoe is disclosed in an application for United .States Letters Patent Serial No. 608,644, filed August 3, 1945, in the name of Everett E. Murphy. The method and machine of that application are effective for the purposes intended, particularly Where the space requirements in the machine aresuch that the covering strip guide causes the covering strip to be directed accurately alon one edge with the other edge of the strip extending downwardly away from the sewing point in a natural unwrinkled condition. In certain types of sewing machine, the shoe is so presented to the machine that, while attaching a platform edge 3 Claims. (Cl. 112-,51)

2 covering strip to the shoe, the strip must project upwardly away from the sewing point instead of downwardly as in the machine of the Murphy application, and other requirements of space in the machine and construction of the shoe prohibit the use of a strip guiding enlargement along the sewing edge of the strip, as in the Murphy machine.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is'to provide a shoe sewing machine having a platform edge covering strip or wrapper guide which will enable easy application of the strip to a shoe and will afford accurate control of the strip without the exercise of unusual skill or ability on the part of the operator or of prior treatment for the strip as required by the machine of the Murphy application above referred to.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a machine forsewing a platform edge covering strip to a shoe is provided having a work piercing needle properly arranged to operate upon the shoe, and a covering strip guide formed with one open edge and a gaging abutment for the opposite edge of the covering strip substantially in line with the needle path, in which guide there is means for crowding. the strip against the abutment comprising a friction wheel acting. on the covering strip in advance of the sewing point and adjustable means for maintainingthe wheel in contact with the strip so that the force required to cause the friction wheel to slide along the strip as the wheel rotates may be changed readily with strips of different degrees of stiffness.

' Other features of the invention consist in the devices, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed, the advantages of which will readily be understood from the following description taken in connection section;

Fig. 2 is a view in left side elevation of the same portions of the machine illustrated in Fig. 1;

Fig; 3 is a plan of the same portions of the machine, as viewed inthe direction of thearrow IIIinFigZ; n

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation ofthe same-portions of the machinelooking in the 'direction of the arrow IV of Fig.2;

Fig.- 5 is a plan of the portionsof the machine and Work'operated upon, as viewed in tion of the arrow V of Fig. 2;

the di'recare inserted successively.

V the shoe after completion.

The illustrated machine is intended to operate upon and to'secure together the marginal portions of a shoe upper ifi, a flange portion of a sock lining or light-weight flexible insole I2, and one edge of a sole edge covering strip or Wrapper M, with their edges in registry. To complete the construction of a shoe with the parts assembled in this way, the space inside the flange of the sock lining or insole i2 is filled with a fibrous platform l6, and the free flexible edge of the covering strip is wrapped around the edge and over the bottom of the platform to conceal the stitches connecting the parts together. Thereafter, the shoe is completed with the'attachment of an outsole It by any convenient --means,.such as cement or through-'and-through stitches. In case cement, is employed to attach the parts of the completed shoe, it is unnecessary to remove the last, indicated at 20, on which the shoe is assembled.

- The machine herein illustrated for securing the sock lining, upper and edge covering strip together is of the type disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 1,169,909, granted February 1,; 1916, in the name of Fred Ashworth, and includes the usual lockstitch forming devices including work I piercing instruments, the curved hook needle of which is indicated at 22 and the curved awl at 24. needle and awl, as illustrated by the dot-dash line 126 of Fig. 2, is arranged to intersect the flange of the sock lining or insole l2 and the V registering marginal portion of the'upper [6 when the parts are presented to the machine with the flange and upper disposed between a work support 28 and a presser foot 30 actuated alternate- 1y to clamp and release the work as the stitches To'direct the edge covering strip or M into the seam inserted by the stitch forming devices of the illustrated machine, particularly where the covering strip is composed of relative- 1y light, flexible material of a widthvarying from The operating path of the wrapperv the forepart to the heel portion of a shoe, and" where relatively high wedge heels or lifts are employed along the latter portion of a shoe, the presser foot 31] is provided with an open edged guide having suitably bent parallel strip confining plates 32 and 34 located in advance of the sewing point in the machine and spaced suffi-'- ciently to receive between them the covering strip; The space between the plates has its open edge directed away from the sewing point, and a gaging abutmenttfi is provided at the end of the 1 space for one edge of the covering strip substantially, in .line with the needle and awl path. To avoid interference with the operating parts of the machine and to provide a convenient arrange:

ment in which the covering strip is easily and quickly brought in a widthwise direction into contact with the gaging abutment 36 of the guide, the guide is arranged to maintain the strip in an inclined position with its free outer edge pro-..

where it may readily be directed along the searn the covering strip under all conditions, the strip.

guide of the present invention is provided with novel means acting to crowd the strip downwardly against the gaging abutment as the strip is drawn through the guide toward the sewing point. To obtain a crowding action of the strip against the abutment, the plate 34 of the strip guide is formed with a slot 42 (Fig. 5) to receive the periphery of a friction wheel 44 engaging the strip and mounted to rotate about an axis inclined at an acute angle to the length of the abutment 36 andthe line of the seam. Thus, during movement of the strip through the guide, the wheel 4% tends to rotate and to direct the strip against the abutment. As soon as the strip engages the abutment, a continued edgewise crowding force is applied in the direction of the arrow 46 of Fig. 3 whenever the strip moves in the direction of feed indicated by the arrow 43. The edgewise crowding action is proportionate to the sliding friction of the wheel along the strip, the :mounting of the wheel being such as to enable this friction to be varied as conditions demand.

The mounting for the friction wheel d4 comprises a spindle 5%} about which the wheel rotates, aspindle supporting yoke 52 having a side opening 5d to receive the wheel, a hinge pin 56 at one end of the yoke on which the yoke may pivot to enable the wheel to move toward and from the strip in the guide, and a bracket 58,-sec-ured to the plate '34 for supporting the hinge pin 56 between a pair of spaced lugs on the bracket. To enable the pressure of the friction Wheel to be maintained on the covering strip or Wrapper regardless of thickness, the guide plate 34 has 52 and receiving a coil spring 62 compressed between the outer surface of the yoke and an adjustable thumb nut 6d. The length of the spring .62 is such as to maintain a substantially constant yielding action of the friction wheel against the covering strip for any practical variations of strip thickness. With strips of different qualities and compositions, however, there may be wide variations in the stiffness of the strips so that, with an extremely flimsy strip, a very light crowding action only is required to maintain the strip engagement with the gaging abutment 35. Accordingly, with strips of different degrees of stiflfnessyit is necessary to adjust the thumb nut 64 to limit the frictional and crowding action of the Wheel d4.

With the use of the strip guide thus described,

sole edge coverings may be sewed to shoes under a wide variation of conditions both in characterquires an increase or adecrease of the guiding force imparted to the strip in accordance with the ability of the strip to resist the forces applied to it duringsewing operations. The nature and scope of the invention having '5 been indicated and a particular embodiment having been described, what is claimed is:

l. A machine for sewing to a shoe a platform edge covering strip having a work piercing needle arranged to penetrate the marginal portion of the shoe, and 'a guide formed with one open edge and an abutment to engage the covering strip and direct it into the path of the needle, in combination with means acting on the covering strip in advance of the sewing point to crowd the strip against the abutment in the guide comprising a friction whee1 mounted to rotate and slide along the surface of the covering strip transversely of its length, and adjustable means for yieldingly maintaining the friction wheel in contact with the strip to enable the force required to cause the wheel to slide along the strip to be changed with strips of different stifiness.

2. A machine for sewing to a shoe a platform edge covering strip having a work support, a presser foot, a work piercing needle arranged to penetrate themarginal portions of the shoe engaging the work support, a pair of parallel plates forming an open edged guide on the presser foot with the open edge directed away from the sewing point, and. an abutment in the guide to engage the covering strip, in combination with a friction wheel mounted for rotation on one of the plates with its periphery entering a slot in said plate to engage thecovering strip between said plates in advance of the sewin point, said wheel having-its axis inclined at an acute angle to the line of the seam inserted by the needle to cause the covering strip to be crowded against the abutment in the guide during sewing operations.

3. A machine for sewing to a shoe .an edge covering strip having a work support, a presser foot, a work piercing needle arranged to penetrate the marginal portions of the shoe engaging the work support, a pair of parallel plates forming an open edged guide on the presser foot with the open edge directed away from the sewing point,

and an abutment in the guide to engage thecovering strip, in combination with a friction wheel mounted for rotation on one of the plates with its periphery entering a slot in said plate to engage the covering strip between said plates in advance of the sewing point, said wheel having its axis inclined at an acute angle to the line of the seam v REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Brown Dec. 19, 1865 Number 

